On a west sill a Bambino fiddle leaf fig scores 99 out of 100, and a metre into the room it scores 98. Take it half a metre further and the light estimate drops to 4,762 lux, which reads as dim for this plant, so the score falls to 67. Those scores are at 24 °C and 45% humidity. A west room gives a fig about one good metre, and in the dark half of the year not even that.
Read on 14 October 2026, the results for this search split by who’s talking. Owners say theirs does fine right next to the west glass, in a 2023 r/fiddleleaffig thread and in a Planty Life group on Facebook, and a Gardenista writer reports no burning at all despite the warnings. The plant shops and care blogs say pull it back. Léon & George and Houseplant Resource Center both say a few feet. Grow Gang says move it away or hang a sheer, and Gardening4Joy puts a number on the retreat: two to three feet.
Both camps can be right about the same window, because the line between them moves through the year.
Great fit
This plant should be happy in this spot.
Just the right amount of light
Comfortable temperature
Humidity suits it
Airflow suits it
How far from a west window should a fiddle leaf fig be?
Within a metre, and closer in winter. The card above is the sill on an ordinary clear day. Here is the same fig walked back from it, with the air and the room left alone:
| Distance from the glass | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.3 m, against the glass | 7,800 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 99/100 |
| 1 m back | 6,000 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| 1.5 m back | 4,762 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 67/100 |
| 2 m back | 3,780 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 65/100 |
| 3 m back | 2,381 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 63/100 |
| 3.5 m back | 1,890 lux | Too dim here | Not the best fit right now, 47/100 |
Everything happens in one half-metre. At 1 m the estimate is 6,000 lux and the light column still says just right. At 1.5 m it’s down to 4,762, and the score has gone from 98 to 67. Past that the slide is slow, until 3.5 m, where the light is simply too dim.
In feet, the great-fit zone runs from the glass to a little over three feet. Gardening4Joy’s two to three feet lands inside it. “A few feet” lands inside it too if a few means three, and five feet back puts the pot on the 1.5 m row.
A metre isn’t much floor. Against south glass the same fig keeps its great fit twice as deep into the room, and a north window never gives it one at any distance. These lux figures are estimates from the window’s direction, the distance and a clear sky, so read them as the shape of a west room rather than a reading of yours.
Does a fiddle leaf fig need to sit closer to a west window in winter?
Yes, and the one-metre spot shows why. Here it is on the 21st of six different months:
| The month it is | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| March | 5,964 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 69/100 |
| April | 6,888 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| June | 7,200 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| August | 6,900 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| September | 5,982 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 69/100 |
| December | 3,501 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 65/100 |
From April to August a metre back is a great fit. In March and September it reads 5,964 and 5,982 lux, a hair under the 6,000 the distance table gave the same spot, and that hair is enough to flag the light as dim and drop the score to 69. By December it’s 3,501 lux and 65.
So the metre-back spot sits right on the line, and the calendar picks the side. We also ran it at latitudes 30 and 50, and the great-fit months still came out April to August. From September to March, then, the pot belongs right against the glass, and even there it slips a band around the shortest days.
Summer is when the shops have a point. A metre back costs nothing in light then, while the air against west glass on a July afternoon can get hot, and in our scoring this plant’s comfortable air tops out in the high twenties Celsius. In October the same step costs a band of light, and there’s far less heat at the glass to get away from.
Will afternoon sun burn a fiddle leaf fig in a west window?
First, the light figures other sites publish for this plant, exactly as each one prints them:
| Who publishes it | What it says a fiddle leaf fig needs | What the figure is |
|---|---|---|
| theplantrunner.com | 1,500–5,000 lux | Light-hungry aroids & Ficus divas (Fiddle Leaf Fig, variegated Monstera) |
| houseplantjournal.com | at least 400 foot-candles | Fiddle leaf fig — leaf-drop threshold |
| bbg.org | under 250 foot-candles | Fiddle-Leaf Fig (Ficus lyrata) |
| bbg.org | 2,000 to 6,000 foot-candles | Fiddle-Leaf Fig (Ficus lyrata) |
| extension.arizona.edu | 75–150 foot-candles | listed under the heading "Medium Light (75–150 fc)" |
| houseplantjournal.com | 400 FC (80 µmol) foot-candles | minimum indirect light level |
| houseplantsnook.com | 400–800 foot-candles | chart fc level |
Not through the light level, as our scoring reads it. The sill’s 7,800 lux sits inside the band where this plant does best, which is why the card at the top gives it 99. The one lux figure in that table tops out at 5,000. At this window that falls between the 1 m and 1.5 m rows, right where our scoring starts calling the light dim.
The Reddit thread has a number of its own. Its owner held a light meter app to the top leaves at five in the afternoon, the brightest moment at a window that only gets sun after four, and read 34,000 lux. That reading and our 7,800 measure different things. Ours is a clear-day estimate for the spot. Theirs is the beam at its brightest moment.
What usually marks the leaves is the move. The south-window page explains why a fig carried into direct sun in one afternoon scorches, and why those marks stay. Brought forward over two or three weeks, the same plant settles on a west sill.
Is a west window as good as a south one for a fiddle leaf fig?
At the glass, nearly. Behind it, no. Of nine ordinary indoor spots scored for this plant, only the sunny sills clear its bar, and the west sill is one of them. What a west room lacks is depth. A south room holds this fig to two metres, an east room to barely two feet, and a monstera at the same west window stays a great fit three metres back. Between a west sill and a spot two metres from south glass, the scores barely differ. What differs is how much floor each window gives you, and with a fig in a west room the floor past the first metre is for a different plant.
What can change these numbers at your window?
Every row here assumes an open west window and a clear sky. An eave, a tree, the building over the road or a half-drawn blind each take light off before it reaches the leaves, and the one-metre row shows how little this plant has to spare. The west window guide lists what else suits the afternoon light, and the free spot checker scores your actual spot with the weather where you live.
Published October 14, 2026
